Will West and Kathryn Bloodworth presented research at the World Congress on Undergraduate Research in Doha Qatar Nov. 13-15.
Darian Smercina is headed to the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco Dec. 12-16 to present some data collected this past field season.Check out our growing citation list of presentations here!
Also, good luck to Natalie VanDyke whose last day in the Evans lab as a research technician is this week.

11/18/2016: This was our last week of field sampling for 2016! We concluded by sampling switchgrass soils post-harvest at both Lake City and Lux Arbor field locations. Tayler also recently attended and presented a poster “Variation in microbial communities and nitrogen transformation rates among switchgrass varieties” and the Keystone Symposia Conference in Santa Fe, NM.

11/7/2016: We recently held our autumn 2016 all group MMPRNT meeting at the scenic spruce lodge at KBS. The meeting was huge success and details on many exciting sub-projects that are in the works related to N-cycling in switchgrass systems were discussed. Stay tuned for announcements about upcoming presentations and papers!

10/18/16: Yang Ouyang officially joined the Tiemann lab and MMPRNT project as a postdoctoral research associate on October 1. Yang has recently finished his PhD at Utah State University where his research focused on the impacts of agricultural N management on the microbial functional groups involved in N mineralization and nitrification processes in conventional and organic farm systems. Yang will use his expertise in qPCR and stable isotope ecology in the MMPRNT project as he works on functional gene primer design for high-throughput qPCR and stable isotope probing experiments in the field and greenhouse that will assess effects of switchgrass root exudates on microbial community structure and function.

10/10/16: The Friesen lab recently completed the harvest of the greenhouse experiment looking at switchgrass responses to nitrogen and microbial inoculation treatments. Data collection is currently underway, and the finalized dataset will include: leaf and root morphological traits, root and rhizosphere transcriptomics data, DNA-based rhizosphere microbial community composition data, as well as soil N-cycling processes measured by the Tiemann lab.

9/25/16: Our baseline sampling of switchgrass soils and plants will continue through the fall at both the Lux Arbor and Lake City field sites. PIs Lisa Tiemann and Maren Friesen have also been experimenting with an in situ acetylene reduction method to assess N-fixation in switchgrass plots at Lux Arbor (see photo here). Tayler Chicoine has also officially started as a graduate student in the Evans lab.

8/8/2016: We’ve recently wrapped up sampling at all six of the GLBRC Marginal Lands field locations. The Friesen Lab also initiated a greenhouse study looking at switchgrass response to different N and microbial inoculation treatments. Check out photos from the trip and greenhouse setup here!

7/17/2016: We are in the middle of sampling switch grass, historical vegetation, and restored prairie plots at all six of the GLBRC Marginal Lands field locations throughout Michigan and Wisconsin. Excited to see the Wisconsin sites for the first time!

5/21/2016: Our 2016 field season is well underway and off to a good start. We started sampling at Lux Arbor in early May and had our first trip to Lake City this past week.

4/21/2016: Congrats to Tayler for writing a successful GRFP proposal! The title of her submission was: “Understanding the role of ecotype-specific root exudates and microbial communities as mediators of plant drought tolerance”.

3/28/2016: Position announcement! Dr. Lisa Tiemann is looking for a postdoctoral research associate with specialization in biogeochemistry and stable isotope ecology to join her lab as part of the MMPRNT project. View the full announcement here!